


Endless Summer

by e_carnell



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Inspired by Poetry, M/M, Photography, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24877879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/e_carnell/pseuds/e_carnell
Summary: I need your help! Comment and give feedback on this work to help me pass my Gold Arts Course :)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 4





	1. Jasmine

**Author's Note:**

> Due to the Coronavirus my arts course had to be moved online. A crucial part of passing the exam is feedback and analysis and as you can imagine this has been extremely difficult.  
> This is one of the pieces I need to share with you, the other is on my account. This one has a photography collection to go with it, which can be seen here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCGw5jzjxSMZsi1XvsFUPAXFBg8ZGzo5yFHWFA0/
> 
> I just need feedback. Negative, positive, anything! For pointers: how well is this work put together? Is it organised and well presented? What do you think of it personally? Do you like poetry? Do you like this type; have you learnt something? How does it make you feel etc. 
> 
> If you want to go even FURTHER to help me, fill in this very short form: https://forms.gle/Mayeero9GrUCLJp77
> 
> Thank you!

Jasmine

I have a tortoise

and when I pick her up she spreads her arms and legs and thinks she's flying

like Jasmine on a flying carpet

I pick her up to put her back on the grass

because she's clumsy you know,

she likes the pavement and she's surprisingly fast. 

She'll only hibernate underground until her blood goes cold at last

and then she comes back up in Spring and I smile.

My dad bought her for my mum when they started dating

and back then you could fit her in the palm of your hand.

They live to 200 you know,

she'll live past me an' all.

What a life- 

only waking up in an eternal summer

to eat grass and chopped tomatoes,

having a hose down with the garden pipe

What a life. 

And now my parents are divorced

and I sometimes forget that she exists

I could live one thousand lifetimes

and never not have that tortoise envy persist. 


	2. The Endless Summers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Told from two people's perspectives in a relationship during the lockdown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: death of a father. Ambiguity in the second stanza DOES NOT INDICATE feelings of indifference towards death, rather positivity in moving on after the effects of the virus are over. Permission was granted by the person affected to post this work.

The Endless Summers

There is a cherry blossom tree outside my house

and the day is full and fresh and bright with sun

The heat sits in blocks on my bed and Julian's voice pours out pure and smooth from my iPad

and I sigh

How did we get like this

I pick up my carved elephant and hope the rough texture isn't ivory

and I hear the birds chirp

the children outside

-but only for a little while-

Holly tells me her dad will die

Yet disturbingly I feel fine and hopeful and kind

I feel in summer nothing can defeat me 

defeat us 

We will come through

and we will do summer

once again

(There was a cherry blossom tree outside his house until the council chopped it down

but right now they're blooming full and pink

limbs twisting

The sun comes in blocks and I think

about the small elephant statue on his desk

I hope it isn't made of ivory but it would appear so; the texture white and rough with pinkish tones

The work is delicate and hand crafted, and shows a baby elephant inside a bigger one; it says made in India on the back

Julian's voice pours in through my iPad and 

I ask him how we're going to do this

How are we going to do this again

He looks at me and tells me he doesn't know I say we should sleep in separate beds to keep my hands off of him and he scoffs. The birds outside are getting angry at us I love you I tell him and he tells me he loves me too but I can't help but think not in the way he wants and I want us to move past this, babe. 

But I don't think we ever will-)


	3. Hair

Hair,

you take up half the frame. 

Bold, thick and chocolate and the dog is much the same,

except caramel and newly cut and conditioned from that place down the road. 

She looks in pain.

Cousin I have not much to tell you right now except for to enjoy this while it lasts. 

I see the love between two entities,

two animals but two different paths, one destined for 'greatness'

and one for a lifetime of playing in the summer grass.

I wish these things were interchangeable,

I wish you could understand this now,

but we never do. 

I wish there was some way for you to snap her neck as you sit there now,

she always barks at the TV.

And when it would crack some light would spill out

and you could swap places with her without a doubt. 

I would do that for you if I could.

Only 17 years on this Earth has taught me that 

that lion on the TV will swallow you whole if you're not careful enough. 

Flower bobble swapped for cuts colours and insecurities,

school uniform traded for societal expectation

and the home you live in will feel like a stranger's somedays

but have this now:

hold her tightly enough

and don't wish for love.

Wish to be tough-

-er than me

and swap the pain in her eyes for comfort and content

and always relent

the fact that you will wish to be something else.


	4. on the other side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A poem told by an unreliable narrator who lives in a post-apocalyptic world.

on the other side

apocalyptic leftist communist anarchist environmental campaign!

i'm starting a revolution from my bedroom in a world of noone

apart from the multi million microbes and species that live in soft grass

you know the grass i mean, the stuff that feels like a cloud and you could swallow it

whole,

fluffy, almost?

A SEA OF GREEN

and there's a bazillion trees

and their species 

has yet to collapse

i'm starting a revolution from my so-called running route

(i've only been once)

in a world of noone again

just me myself and i 

think that most human worries are pointless in the grand scheme of things.

i'm starting a revolution from this. Exact. Spot.

and it's not going too well if i'm honest (AND there's a fly on my arm for GOD SAKE

oh now it's gone).

it's like space here

endlessly void of anything but shades of green in the mean-

time i'll sit and stare at it and hope that the words come

to inspire a generation or two about how all politicians are the same or something

like that. 

i think i'll decide to live right. here and start a revolution from the floor

in a world of nobody

and hope that it's better on the other side.


	5. These Are The Requirements

These Are The Requirements

The requirements of youth vary from child to child

some play xbox 

some ponder upon the last time they smiled

like the children that lived in blades of grass

dry and piercing in Vietnam

in 1968

an American spikes a thousand holes into his tiny back

here, though, they tickle you and you complain about the bug attacks

The ground is bare in Ethiopia,

drought the sound of a broken violin

she collapses from heat stroke and dehydration

in a place where water hasn't been.

And you'll weep to see the places the sun doesn't touch in Iraq

in rubbled alleyways

brick pierces heat-kissed shining skin

blood clotting sticky and deep red on innocent shins

And is the ground uncomfortable for you, brother?

Will the adults repent their sins?

I don't know just yet

but I hope this generation wins.


End file.
